The Little People

Local artist Suzanne Husky makes soft sculpture, soft portraits, and soft murals. She also makes marmalade, but let's set that aside for a moment. At "You Make Me Make You," a new solo show, the French-born Husky exhibits several series of tiny soft people who represent Mexican laborers, Chinese factory workers, and Bay Area action figures like hipsters and ecological activists; each wears a photographic face. She seems to be interested in the tension between individual and collective identities, and works it out in her handmade repetitions of aprons or face masks for her little people. She also includes several large-scale dioramas of processes she likes, such as indoor hydroponics and backyard graywater filtering, also rendered in fabric sculpture. Back to the citrus jam: A previous project found Husky's practical French sensibilities put off by years of watching her Berkeley neighbors grow fruit without using it. So in the name of art, she instigated e-mail contact with her grandmother, "Mouty," gathered loads of advice and recipes, then collected and cooked the fruit and gave it back to the neighbors. Maybe some of the jam will be made available at the reception?
May 23-29, 2008